Katie spun around once. “Well, how do I look?”
Chelle smiled, and this time she knew that the smile reached her eyes. Happiness for her BFF welled up inside of her. Well, Katie was more than her BFF, actually. She was her DFF (Diamond Friend Forever) – that is what they had considered each other since they were in elementary school and Aunt Wendy had told them that best friends were common but diamond friends were rare. “Like an angel,” she answered.
Katie scrunched her nose, “That’s weird. That’s what Jas told me he thought the first time he saw me in Kindergarten. I’m no angel, I don’t get it,” she shrugged.
“You look so beautiful. I’m so happy for you guys!” Chelle could feel tears beginning to form again, but this time they were tears of joy. Well...mostly joy. There may have been some leftover emotions that had decided they wanted to rear their ugly little heads, not appreciating being shoved down and ignored. But MOSTLY it was joy!
Katie’s eyes met Chelle’s and a flash of concern crossed her face, “Are you okay?”
Dang it, Katie had always been perceptive and once her “spidey senses” detected something, she would not drop it until she was satisfied with the answer she got.
If Chelle was going to pull this off, she was going to have to give it everything she had! Attempting to call on her inner Meryl Streep, she tried to mask any emotion that would raise suspicion. “I’m great!” She announced, perhaps a tad too enthusiastically. OKAY...so, Meryl Streep she was not. But she was giving it the old college try!
Katie cocked her head to the side and gave her a look that made it clear that she was not buying what Chelle was trying to sell, “Chelle, seriously...what’s wrong?”
Her mind quickly scrambled for a way out, a plan B explanation that would provide a simple and believable cause for her welling emotion. Oh snap, that’s it! Simple explanation!
“I’m just so happy to be here with you, you know...on your wedding day. I can’t believe you’re getting married. And I’ve missed you so much!”
The best lies, Chelle had read somewhere, were ones that were rooted in the truth – and what Chelle had just said certainly was the truth...if not the whole truth. But Chelle realized that the key to redirecting Katie’s attention would be to stick to the (palatable part) of the truth since Katie could sniff out a lie like a bloodhound.
Katie smiled and came over to give Chelle a hug. YES! Plan B was a success.
“I’ve missed you too! God, it’s so weird. I mean, a month ago I was living in California. I hadn’t even seen you or Jas in over ten years. Now, I can’t imagine my life without him, or you,” Katie was shaking her head, but smiling from ear to ear, “I seriously can’t believe it’s only been a month.”
Katie had come back to Harper’s Crossing a month earlier for Sophie's, wedding. Katie had dated Nick, her next door neighbor and also Sophie's big brother, since they were in middle school. Nick had died tragically in an automobile accident the summer after their senior year, and Katie left town the night after his funeral. She hadn’t been home in a decade.
Sophie, who had always considered Katie her big sister, had asked Katie to be the maid of honor in her wedding. Katie, despite her reservations about returning to the place that had spawned such complicated feelings for her – feelings she had been running from for a decade – had returned out of pure love for Sophie. Over the course of that wedding weekend, which turned out to be the most fateful weekend of her life, she had reunited with Jason, who had been the best man in the wedding.
Jason had been in love with Katie since the first day they had met in Kindergarten, but he had never told her of his feelings until the weekend of the wedding, and - after spending a roller coaster few days together - he had asked her to marry him.
Katie had said yes, and Jason hadn’t wanted to waste any time getting her down the aisle. His feeling was that they had already wasted over 20 years not being together, and he didn’t want to live even one more day than he absolutely had to without her as his wife.
Katie, who was the sweetest person alive, hadn’t wanted to overshadow Bobby and Sophie’s recent nuptials and had insisted that they wait at least a month. In that time, she had headed back to San Francisco, with Jason by her side, and tied up some lose ends with cases that she had in progress, facilitating their transfer to other attorneys on staff at her firm. She had thought that she might be sad to leave her fast-paced life as an up and coming lawyer, but had ultimately decided that 80-plus hour work weeks and near-constant pressure to perform were not the life she wanted. She wanted to move home to Harper's Crossing, and - most importantly - she wanted Jason.